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Here’s your chance to sit down and chat with your 2010 GOP Gubernatorial Candidates.  Get to know each candidates and their policy positions, as well as any bad table manners they may have, as you join them for an delicious Asian cuisine!

The event will take place this Saturday, January 30th from 6:30-8:30 PM at the Song Long Restaurant, located at:

14871 Granada Drive
Apple Valley, MN 55124

The public is welcome and we only ask $10 at the door, with your meal included in the price.

This is your last chance to get to know the candidates before the 2010 Precinct Caucuses.  Once you know which candidate you support you can go to your precinct caucuses and become a delegate so you can have a chance to support that Gubernatorial candidate in the endorsement process.  If you’ve complained about the quality of candidates before, this is your chance to get to know the candidates, pick the one you like best and then join the process to make sure they are the one up for election.

If you stay home, not only will you be hungry, but you miss a chance to participate in the democratic process and ensure the GOP has quality candidates going into 2010.

See you there!

[Event is sponsored by the Senate District 37 Republicans]

[Full disclosure : I'm part of the Senate District 37 Republicans]

Tonite the Teleprompter of the United States (TOTUS) gives the State of the Union (SOTU) speech via the President of the United States (POTUS), Barack Obama. Given the developments of the last few months, especially the last week, the speech promises to be either extremely lame, or comedy gold. Given the pre-SOTU talking points being disseminated by the White House, I’m leaning towards the latter.

Reading through them, a couple tidbits jumped out at me enough, that I thought I’d give a pre-SOTU rebuttal.

Rescue, Rebuild and Restore

That’s the theme of the entire speech…doesn’t have quite the rhetorical flare that “HOPE! CHANGE!” had now does it? It’s as if our shining city on the hill has been occupied by the enemy.

A $1.3 trillion budget deficit, two wars and badly frayed global alliances also greeted the President at the door.

And Obama responded by doubling down on all of it. He tripled our deficit, expanded the wars, and frayed even more national relations by offending most of our friends and bowing to our enemies.

Within one month of his inaugural, President Obama had shepherded the most far-reaching economic recovery plan in American history. It has brought our economy back from the brink of a second Great Depression and, one year later, we are beginning to see signs of progress.

Hardly, in fact the stimulus has either had no effect, in which case it’s $787 billion of wasted taxpayer dollars, or it’s actually harmed the US economy.

Job losses, while still too high have fallen to a tenth of where they were a year ago and the economy is growing for the first time in two years.

The unemployment rate continues to climb, and in fact would be skyrocketing except that we don’t count workers who have given up on looking for a job. Plus we’ve learned the following:
- US “unexpectedly” lost 85,000 jobs in December
- Overall home sales “unexpectedly” dropped 16% in November
- Foreclosures rose “unexpectedly”
- New housing starts fell “unexpectedly” in December
- Builder sentiment “unexpectedly” fell this month
- Home resales “unexpectedly” plunged in December faster than ever before

“Unexpectedly”, this is NOT an economy in recovery.

Under President Obama’s leadership, we have begun to confront challenges that Washington has ignored for decades and enact reforms meant to strengthen families, small businesses, and American economic competitiveness that lobbyists and special interests have worked to prevent time and again.

You’ve accomplished nothing for the taxpayers. The only thing you’ve accomplished is bailing out special interests, which is probably due to the fact that you hired most of the lobbyist in Washington to join your Administration….but at least you got them to start paying their taxes again.

We are closer than ever on real health reform, we’re moving toward a clean energy economy, we’ve taken on the big banks and special interests to reform outdated and lax financial rules, and we’ve initiated far-reaching education reforms to demand excellence in K-12 and make college more accessible and affordable.

Closer than ever doesn’t count. Doesn’t matter if you got the fastest horse in the world if it drops dead a foot before the finish line.

Fact is health care reform has failed due to the fact that you ignored the wishes of the public when drafting your bailout of special interests, you have failed to get anywhere with a clean energy economy, because you concentrated only on the “clean” and ignored the “energy” and “economy” parts. You bailed out big banks and had secret meeting with special interests. And you appointed a sodomy loving pervert to Secretary of Education.

He’s matched this leadership and advocacy for the American people by standing up to those very special interests and by beginning to change the way business is done in Washington by making government more accountable, accessible and transparent to all Americans.

You didn’t stand up to them….unless by “stand up to” you mean “offer them a cushy government job”. Then yeah, you were awesome at that.

You haven’t changed the way business is done in Washington. In fact, you’ve doubled down on some of the worst aspects of Washington. Secrety meetings. Partisan bickering. Bribing legislators. Monthly scandals. Silencing the opposition. Special privileges. The list goes on…you haven’t changed Washington, and you’ve admitted that yourself previously.

For the first time ever, every visitor to the White House – what they’re doing and who they’re meeting with – will be made public

Except for the ones you’ve refused to release details of…that’s not transparent, that’s selective hypocrisy.

And we’ve limited the influence of lobbyists in government by preventing executive branch employees from receiving gifts from lobbyists, by prohibiting administration officials from lobbying the government for two years after they leave public service, and by removing lobbyists from government boards and commissions.

A large number of the people appointed to your administration ARE lobbyists. You had to waive your own rules regarding lobbyists because you were hiring so many of them!! You don’t limit their influence by hiring them.

As he’s worked to rescue the economy and rebuild it on a new foundation that will promote growth and prosperity for all Americans, President Obama has begun the hard work required to restore America’s standing and leadership in the world.

By selling out our allies to the Russians? By repeatedly insulting the British? By bowing to foreign leaders? By projecting weakness to our enemies? Fact of the matter is that you’ve pissed off all our friends and you’ve encouraged our enemies. Even the Tower of Piza has a better foundation than the foundation you “built”

After one momentous year in office, President Obama has governed as he said he would, making tough decisions instead of deferring them, thinking about the long-term well-being of the country and not just his own, short-term politics.

You took months and countless studies just to accept the recommendations on Afghanistan. You deferred to Congress’s “leadership” on every part of the legislative agenda, with disastrous results. You’ve saddled us with MASSIVE long term debt. You pushed for a health care bill that would have multiplied our looming entitlements problem. And you initiated numerous programs like Cash for Clunkers that were designed more for short-term benefit, at the expense of long-term recovery.

Sorry, Mr. President, but your charisma has worn off and your oratorical skills just aren’t enough to disguise the shit you’re shoveling. It’s best to just come clean with the country, rather than just compound the lies. Just admit it, you fucked up. Let’s accept that and move forward.

[Crossposted at True North]

A week ago, Scott Brown won his Senate seat in Massachusetts and the entire political landscape changed.  It was a major defeat for Obama, who personally campaigned for Coakley and it was a major setback for Democrats, whose agenda is now threatened.  Meanwhile conservatives and Republicans have celebrated and started prognosticating an insanely bright future for the GOP.  There is a big problem with that….the Democrats weren’t the only losers last Tuesday, the Republican Party was also big loser, and in an potentially fatal way.

It’s extremely likely that this election was a rejection of the Obama agenda.  Both candidates made health care one of the foremost issues.  Obama and other high-level Democrats campaigned for Coakley.  Even in deep blue Massachusetts the voters rejected her.  Polls continue to show that the voters are against the Democrat’s healthcare bill, they’re against Cap&Trade, they’re worried about the deficit, and they want smaller government even if it means fewer services.  The conservative agenda is clearly popular right now, it’s a gimme for the Republicans right?? Wrong.  Polls show conservatives simply don’t trust Republican legislators, and they have a lot of reason to.

But Tea Party activists have to eventually side with Republicans don’t they?? No, not at all, and Scott Brown’s election proved it.  Scott Brown got his volunteers from the Tea Party movement.  He raised over a million dollars a day via the internet.  His campaign existed largely outside the Republican Party structure.  Republicans always promise lower spending and smaller government, but when they get to Washington they feed the government hog instead.  When Scott Brown promised the same, the public, especially the Tea Party activists responded with great enthusiasm.  The Scott Brown campaign didn’t just exist outside the Republican Party structure…..it THRIVED.

The Tea Party is the most popular movement in the country, far outpacing both the Democrats and Republicans.  And now they’ve proven they can do more than just stand around and make noise in town halls and in web forums on the internet.  They can make or break an election, even in hostile territory.  The Republican Party hasn’t yet figured out that they need the Tea Party, but the Tea Party movement is slowly waking up to the fact that they don’t need the Republican Party.

Instead of going through usual Republican Party process of creating an electoral platform, the Tea Party folk have instead bypassed the party.  Instead of a top-down Contract TO America, they’ve banded together and through grassroots methods are creating a Contract FROM America.  In fact, internal divisions within the Tea Party movement, have at least partially been from mistrust of RNC affiliated groups.

The default position of the Tea Party movement appears to be that they choose to go it alone and the window is rapidly closing for that to change.  The Republican Party needs to find something to offer the Tea Party movement, or else they may very well find themselves in the minority, along with the Democrats.  Upcoming caucuses and primaries are the best, and probably last chance, for the Republican Party to accomplish that.

[Crossposted at True North]

It’s another woot-off!  You know the song…..sing it, and you know if you’re feeling wooty, there’s a woot-off.

It’s been awhile since I did a linky roundup…yeah, that’s right, I’ve been too lazy to do a lazy version of blogging.  I blame it on depression over the continual depletion of our snow levels that make snowmobile not so possible.

• “Obama is so dependent on teleprompters he wouldn’t give a speech to elementary kids without out”….sounds like a cynical right-wing joke right??  Well welcome to the Age of Change, where cynical right-wing sneers become reality!
• If Obama didn’t exist, the right would probably have to invent him…..wait, anyone seen Rove and Obama in the same room together???? Wow….he is an evil genius.
• Ok I’m confused, and I might write a full blog post about this if I can interpret the wackiness.  It appears that Chicago has picked their strategy in the upcoming SCOTUS case McDonald vs Chicago, in order to limit the breadth of the Second Amendment they are claiming the 14th Amendment…..doesn’t exist???? No seriously.
• Movie made by chimpanzees to be broadcast on television……huh, well, embarrassing as this is to say, I guess I sort of assumed that’s how ALL of Hollywood’s movies were made.
• ‘Change is simply a euphemism for “big government”‘ Look for that to become a Republican talking point in the coming months.
• The one American automaker that is thriving is the one that was NOT bailed out by the government.  But remember you good American subjects of Obama, big government is the answer to all your ills.  Now hand over your health care like good little serfs.
• Count this as a huge strike against full-body scanners….this is from German TV, so those of you that don’t speak German, don’t catch it all, but the great part is you don’t have to understand what is being said to get the point.  Basically they try to demonstrate how great a full body scanner is, only to find out that their subject had hidden parts of a bomb all over his body…which the scanner did NOT detect.  In their attempt to explain away the failures, they admit their technology can’t detect things hidden in body cavities….such as the mouth, or other less comfortable cavities, which terrorists have already demonstrated they have no problem hidden things in.
• 20 great moments in liberal bigotry….not surprising from the side that fought the Civil Rights movement and includes a former KKK leader in it’s ranks.
• Brock Lesnar slams Canadian health care with “It was like I was in a Third World country“…..actually that sounds like a pretty good description of Canada.
• Anyone find it odd that despite the Democrats campaigning against the Republicans Culture of Corruption and then promising totally the most ethical Congress EVAH….not a single legislator has been punished under the Democrat’s ethics rules….I suppose when you set the bar so high that even tax fraud and bribery doesn’t trip over it, well, that’s what we get.
• For those of you that are sort of nostalgic, you can read through all the promises that Obama made….and hasn’t kept.
• You’d think that if we were going to charge terrorists under our regular civilian justice system, you’d think we’d at least consult those in charge of such things.
• Oh good, Obama picked the next industry he wants to nationalize….the student loan industry.  Yes, I can see how that industry is critical to our national security and therefore needs to be nationalized.
• It’s a little ironic that the same guy seeking to massively increase the size of the federal government is criticizing banks for being too big.
• I’ve never known that are so many flavors of crazy…..according to Chavez, the US has some super secret earthquake weapon. And instead of doing something productive by launching it at Iran or North Korea, we lauched it at…..Haiti.
• I’m not sure what bothers me more….that the jobless rate keeps increasing, or that every time it does it’s “unexpected“.
• IRONY ALERT…..Obama is preventing those that cheat on their taxes from receiving government contracts.  It has occurred to him that half of his cabinet “forgot” to pay their taxes or otherwise cheated on their own taxes right???
• Wow, a Daily Kos author is trying to make their case that a grandma handing out pro-life lit is a terrorist.  As part of that justification, they claim that women turned away from abortion will seek instead to poison themselves or throw themselves down the stairs in an attempt to end the pregnancy.  Basically in the mind of this author, if you’re pregnant, the only alternative to abortion is to kill the baby some other way.  There is literally no other option….wow, just wow.
• Despite what the FBI says, they haven’t a clue who was behind all those anthrax attacks.
• This is why I can’t trust the Campaign for Liberty movement….for all the good ideas they have, they still idolize this conspiracy loving kook.

LOL, gotta love the Onion.

Jurassic Park, the story of a grand experiment gone horribly horribly wrong…..much like the Obama Administration.  And much like the Obama Administration, there were those that voiced warnings and concerns about what was going on.  One of the most appropriate was by Dr. Ian Malcolm

Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.

Unfortunately this advice relates just as well to the Obama Administration.  Obama and the Democrats were so fixated on whether they could get socialized health care passed that they didn’t stop to think if they should.  The ignoring the impending storm that the Tea Parties represented.  They ignored the velociraptors of public opinion coming from every which way, indicating that the public absolutely hated this bill.  And they seem intent on ignoring the T-Rex in the lobby….elections, which have more than once demonstrated that the public is fed up with having this bill crammed down their throats.  But now the T-Rex has eaten the children and this metaphor has gone on twice as long as it should have.  Will the Democrats finally stop to consider if this is an agenda they should be pushing, rather than just if they can?

In order for that to happen, they would have to recognize the election for what it is.  To be fair, some of the loss in Massachusetts can be attributed to one of the worst political campaigns in recorded history by Coakley.  Sure she couldn’t have run a worse campaign if she had actually tried.  On the other hand, it’s Massa-fucking-chusetts and polling indicates that Coakley’s ineptitude was only a secondary reason for her abysmal performance.

Fifty-six percent (56%) of voters in the state say health care was the most important factor in their voting decision. Brown made it clear in the closing days of the campaign that he intended to go to Washington to vote against the health care plan proposed by President Obama and congressional Democrats.

And in the final weeks of the campaign, Obama was making personal appeals to the voters on Coakley’s behalf.  Democrats everywhere were telling voters that if they didn’t vote in Coakley they would be destroying Ted Kennedy’s life work, socialized health care.  The voters responded.  So how do the Democrats respond?

On one hand you have Pelosi declaring that they will get the health care bill passed one way or another.  And you have Democrats claim that people will like the bill once they understand what’s in it, despite polling showing the people dislike it more the more they know about it.  But you also have Senators like Webb and Frank saying that health care should wait until Brown is seated, thereby severely limiting the Democrats options for passage of the bill.  But so far nobody is advocating ditching the health care bill and either starting from scratch or just pivoting to focus on jobs and the economy.

Ultimately a hard pivot onto jobs and the economy is likely the only way the Democrats can avoid a severe public beating in November.  Even with a hard pivot it’s unlikely that voters would completely forgive the Democrats, as Republicans still hold a full eight point advantage in a generic Congressional poll and it is unlikely that the economy would rebound fast enough to save them.  And it’s not just independents that are mad, after Massachusetts, it appears that the far left has responded to their loss by demanding a hard left turn.  It seems likely that Democrats faced with almost certain doom either way they turn may very well decide to stay loyal to the wishes of their base.

This isn’t the end, this is only the beginning and it’s a long time to November.  Things are likely to get worse before they get better.

I’ve been informed that I’m terribly overdue in having a photocontest, and a little levity probably wouldn’t hurt, so here you go…

The Rankings Are As Follows:

• Lloyd :8
• Drunkguy :6
• NightWriter :5
• Triple “I Whine Like A Child” A : 5
• Dan S : 4
• Harvey : 3
• Mall Diva : 3
• Professor_Rackmaster : 2
• jroosh : 2
• Bogus Doug : 2
• Aelfheld : 2
• Sola-Man : 2
• Bobby_B : 2
• Uncle Ben : 1
• Tiger Lilly : 1
• J Ewing : 1
• kingdavid : 1
• tommy g : 1
• spurringirl : 1

For this contest you get to make up your own answers!! That’s right…just pretend you’re a real life journalist and just make shit up. Post answers in the comments. They will be judged on creativity, plausibility and humor.

Question : Relate the conversation happening here

Previous contests

Via Instapundit, yet another example of the system working

A Waupaca woman finds herself in the middle of a major security investigation at Cleveland’s airport.

Kimmy Janke had gone through security. In fact, she was in a secure part of the terminal when she stopped to go to the bathroom before making her connecting flight.

That’s when she found a loaded handgun.

“A little kid could have grabbed that. The wrong person could have grabbed that. You never know,” Janke said.

Turns out it belong to a federal custom agent, who was allowed to retire without any discipline or reprimand or even a token slap on the wrist.  If any of the rest of us had done half as much you’d have TSA agents probing orifices you didn’t know you had….and I’m guessing you wouldn’t get so much as dinner&movie before.

What really bothers me about this is how elementary this error really is.  You don’t need to be a “highly trained federal agent”, as she is described, to know how to handle a firearm in a public restroom.  This is a topic that’s handled in the most elementary of firearms courses relating to carrying in public.   Basically ANY carry permit course/book/pamplet/business card/etc is probably gonna touch on this subject and how to handle it.  Yet a trained federal agent messes it up….it’s the details that are important when it comes to national security, because it was messing up the details that caused the feds to completely miss the Eunuch Bomber.

It’s actually pretty simple.  I’ve heard more best practices on bathroom behavior than I really care to admit, even if it does relate to firearms.  Everyone has their preferred method, because nothing wants to be the cause of the dreaded “CLUNK! Clatter, Clatter, Clatter”.

One popular method is the shoe….take off your shoe, put the firearm in it, do your business.  The idea being nobody is going to forget walking out without their shoe.  I’ve never been a fan of this method due to the simple observation that public restroom floors appear to be scientific experiments dedicating to evolving life all over at the cellular level.  Plus it makes your firearm very visible in the next stall.

Another method is to adopt something akin to Larry Craig’s patented “wide stance”, which prevents your pants from dropping to the floor.  So the firearm on your belt remains up by your knees.  It’s still attached to you, it’s not visible.  Simple.  I was a big fan of this method until the US Senate’s singular contribution that fateful year was to inform me that this was a way to proposition US Senator’s in neighboring stalls.  Having been screwed over by enough politicians as it is, I’ve since abandoned this method.

Another popular method, is the “Is that a gun in your crotch….” in which you place the firearm in the crotch of your pants.  You can’t pull up your pants and not remember your firearm.  It’s secure and away from the view of neighbors.  Pretty simple.

Now that’s probably more information than you care to hear.  But the point is that these are all pretty simple.  If you ask any responsible permit holder, he/she can probably tell you what method they use if you care to ask.  Because they’ve all thought it over ahead of time so they don’t make this boneheaded mistake, because not being part of the privileged elite, they would get in trouble otherwise.

Which isn’t to say that the fate of the country’s national security rests on the bathroom habits of our customs agents, but it does indicate a rather lackadaisical attitude towards the details.  And as we all found out on Christmas, details matter.